A self-confessed "villain" has been cleared by an Old Bailey jury of gunning down a security guard during a robbery.

But John Dunlop, 43, of Lansdowne Place, Hove, and Silchester Road, Hastings, was jailed for three-and-a-half years when he admitted receiving a stolen car.

The sentence will begin when his present three-year term - imposed at Hove Crown Court for drugs and firearms offences - ends.

A jury acquitted him of robbing a guard of £25,000 in Hornchurch, Essex, in August, 1999, and shooting him in the leg.

Judge Timothy Pontius said with his long criminal record Dunlop, who admitted being an armed robber at the age of 14, would have faced a life term if convicted.

The judge said Dunlop maintained he was a "minder and messenger" for professional criminals.

His wife Phillipa, 30, gave evidence for the prosecution and claimed she saw him with guns and said he boasted to her that he had carried out the robbery in Essex.

Dunlop told the jury she was lying about him out of jealously because she discovered he was having two affairs.